British Problem Solving Championship – the solutions

4/3/2011 – A mate in two, one in three and a selfmate in five. Those were the problems that John Nunn selected from the BPS Championship for our readers. Today we give you the solutions, carefully explained by the winner. It is an ideal opportunity to learn how to approach these otherwise daunting chess problems. And how to deconvolute and generally enhance astronomical pictures.

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British Problem Solving Championship

Earlier this week we gave you the
solutions of the three problems from the International Solving Contest.
The annual British Problem Solving Championship saw many leading solvers gathered
in Oakham, England, just a few weeks after the ISC. The BPC was a runaway success
for John Nunn, who led from start to finish and solved every problem except
one. The leading scores (from a possible maximum of 65) were:

In March John sent three
problems for our readers to solve. Now he provides the solution, extensively
explained in his trademark didactic style.

Gilbert Dodds, 1st Prize,
Good Companions February 1915
White to play and mate in two

In a mate in two, it’s often a good idea to see what would happen if it were
Black to move. Here the results are rather surprising, since a queen move allow
Re6#, a knight move allow Rf3# and ...d5 allows Qxe5#. In other words Black
is already in zugzwang, and if White had a waiting move then the problem would
be solved. Of course, that would be too easy and it doesn’t take long to see
that there is no waiting move, for example 1 Bf2? allows Black to take on a1
with check. The bishop on g1 is a bit of a mystery, since it played no role
in the above lines and it is hard to imagine that its only function is to prevent
a check along the first rank. This suggests that the key should be a white rook
move to allow the bishop into play. 1 Re2? fails to 1...Ne4 and if the rook
moves to, say, d3 then Black just takes on a1. By a process of elimination one
arrives at 1 Rc3!, which at first sight is the least likely move because
it not only unpins the queen but even allows it to check. However, it turns
out that Black is again in zugzwang, although the variations are now rather
different:

1...N moves is still met by 2 Rf3#
1...d5 2 Rc6#

Most queen moves (including the checks) are met by 2 Rf3# or by taking the
queen with the rook. However 1...Qxc3 2 Qxc3# and 1...Qd4 2 Bxd4# are special
cases, the latter line making use of the bishop. [Click
to replay]

Thomas Ricketts, 4th Prize,
BCF Tourney No.117 1967-8 White to play and mate in three

This problem caused chaos in the British Solving Championship, with only three
solvers scoring at all and only myself gaining the maximum five points by finding
every variation. A certain amount of luck is involved in solving a problem like
this quickly. There are many points the solver can focus his attention on, but
the most productive one is to imagine what happens if Black plays 1...g3. This
is an awkward move to meet because it gives the king an escape square on g4,
and there aren’t very many White moves which cope with it. The key is 1 Bxe5,
which threatens 2 Qg3 (threatening 3 Qxg4# and 3 Qf4#, and if 2...fxe5 then
3 Qxe5#). This move copes with 1...g3 automatically, since White can again play
2 Qxg3. There are several variations, some of them quite tricky in themselves:

There are several factors which make this problem tricky. The first is that
there is a quiet (that is, non-checking) threat. The second is that if you notice
in the diagram that 1...Kxe4 can be met by 2 Qb4+ Kf5 3 e4#, then you will be
reluctant to give this mate up. The third is that it would easy to miss White’s
second move after 1...dxe2 or 1...fxe5 and thus reject 1 Bxe5. [Click
to replay]

Valery Kopyl and Gennady Kozyura,
1st Prize, Borodavkin-40 Jubilee Tourney 2010 White to play and selfmate in five

In this selfmate, White plays first and forces Black to mate White on Black’s
fifth move at the latest. Black is trying to avoid mating White.

Here there are only two Black moves to worry about, 1...hxg1B and 1...hxg1N,
since Black’s three other legal moves all mate White instantly. It seems likely
that 1...hxg1B will be met by a series of checks ending with a check on e3,
forcing Black to play ...Bxe3#. Likewise, the knight promotion will probably
be met by a series of checks ending with a check on f3.

Let’s first suppose that Black plays 1...hxg1B in the diagram (we don’t know
yet what White’s first move is). It seems unlikely that the final check will
be delivered with the black king on c5, since it would have to be by Qxe3+,
and at the moment there is no need for Black to take on e3 as the king can move
to c4 or d6. So probably the king will be chased somewhere making it easier
to force the capture on e3. Then it’s a case of looking at forcing sequences
of checks to see what comes up. After a bit of trial and error, it should be
possible to find the sequence 1...hxg1B 2 Rxc6+ Kxc6 3 c8R+ Kb7 4 a6+ Ka7 5
Qxe3+ Bxe3#. The main trouble here is that this line already works in the diagram,
so it gives little clue as to White’s first move, other than that it should
not disrupt this pre-existing line.

Here’s where it helps to guess the idea of the composers. This line features
a rook sacrifice, followed immediately by the rebirth of the rook via a pawn
promotion. Could something similar happen in the other line? The only other
piece which can be sacrificed immediately is the white queen, and if White played
Qd6+ followed by f8Q+ then we would have a sequence analogous to the first one.
Since this also provides a role for the f7-pawn, which has hitherto played no
part in the proceedings, we are probably on the right lines. The obvious problem
is that Qd6+ can at the moment by met by ...Kxc4, which suggests that White’s
first move must eliminate this possibility. The bishop must stay on c4 to cover
a6 in the first line, so 1 b3 is a likely key (indeed, otherwise it’s
hard to see what the b2-pawn is there for). Then we have the two lines:

Astronomy

Never a Nunn without an astronomical reference. Chess, problem solving and
chess publication is John's "day job". At night (somewhere in the
world) he spends his time working with a global network of remotely operated
telescope systems. Global Rent-a-Scope
(GRAS) allows subscribers to connect to worldwide telescope locations and operate
the instruments there. In an article on the GRAS site John explained how image
processing can be used to enhance the pictures one takes with the remote telescopes.

Above is a John Nunn image (which you can click to enlarge) of two galaxies
in the constellation Leo, M65 (on the left) and M66 (on the right). This pair
represents two-thirds of the famous ‘Leo triplet’, but unfortunately
the remaining one (NGC 3628) is too far away to lie in the field of view of
the telescope he used, G11.

In his GRAS
article John tells GRAS visitors how to use deconvolution, a mathematical
technique for removing blurring, in order to enhance the images that come out
of the telescope, how to combine sub-frames to make a colour image, and how
to use other techniques to achieve the perfection you see in the example above.
Very instructive.

Links to previous problem articles

Problem solving grand slam – solutions 30.03.2011 – The months of January and February
saw two other major solving events. Both were won by John Nunn, a remarkable
feat given that he was one of the older participants. John sent us sample
positions from both contests, which we passed on to our readers. His
explanation of the solutions is possibly even more valuable than the
problems themselves. We start with the ISC
Solving Contest.

John Nunn's problem grand slam09.03.2011 – The early part of each year involves
a busy schedule of events in the problem solving world. We already reported
on the Tata
Steel Study Solving competition, and the months of January and February
saw two other major solving events. Both were won by John Nunn, a remarkable
feat given that he was one of the older participants. Report
with sample problems.

Nunn wins Second Tata Steel study solving contest12.02.2011 – After the success of the first
study solving competition held at Wijk aan Zee two years ago (unexpectedly
won by Dutch player Twan Burg, with John Nunn second), the event was repeated
this year. It was won by one of the oldest participants, none other than
the world-class problem solver (and ChessBase photographer) John Nunn.
Here's a pictorial report and a sample
study to solve.

Christmas puzzle solutions – part two26.01.2011 – Last week we gave you part
one of the solutions to our 2010 Christmas Puzzles, with the didactic
explanations of our problem expert John Nunn. Today we bring you part
two, with the solutions of puzzles six to eight and the astronomical tiebreakers.
We also announce the names of the winners: any solvers from Britain, US,
Japan or Israel should go quickly to the solutions and see
if you have won.

Christmas puzzle solutions – part one20.01.2011 – As promised we provide you with
the solutions to our 2010 Christmas Puzzles. There were a very large number
of entries, and our problem expert John Nunn has put a lot of work into
explaining the solutions as lucidly as possible. This made it necessary
to split the solutions into two parts, with the second due in a few days.
For today here is the
first part.

Christmas puzzles and prizes30.12.2010 – The ChessBase Christmas
Puzzle week continues, with new problems presented by Dr John Nunn
on every day from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1st. You can find them all on the 2010
puzzle index page. Today we encounter the first of the more
challenging set, so keep a notepad and pen ready to record your solutions.
There will be valuable prizes to be won in the first week of January.
Puzzles five
and six.

Christmas puzzles and deadly checkmates26.12.2010 – The ChessBase Christmas
Puzzle week continues with a new problem presented by problem solving
world champion John Nunn – this time a selfmate. On a visit to his house
on the outskirts of London we gained a preview of his book 1001 Deadly
Checkmates, a copy of which will be one of the prizes we offer to best
solvers of the Christmas puzzles. But now on to puzzles
two,
three and four.

World Problem Solving Championship – Solutions11.11.2010 – Last week John Nunn showed us
four of the problems that had been given to the participants of this competition
that was held on October 19th and 20th in Hersonissos, Crete. They were
not easy (it was, after all, a world championship!) and John describes
how he went about solving them. And he presents another stunning selection
of astronomical pictures. All
highly instructive.

John Nunn wins World Problem Solving Championship03.11.2010 – At fifteen he was Oxford's youngest
undergraduate since the 15th Century. He did a PhD on finite H-spaces,
lectured on mathematics, and became one of Britain's strongest chess grandmasters.
At 55 John's brain is still in top shape, as he showed by winning the
problem solving world championship ahead of 70 mostly younger solvers.
Truly
amazing.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!